Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) is a cross-Departmental network of Civil Service economists and policy analysts working directly for their respective Departments. IGEES consists of persons recruited through the IGEES recruitment stream and other Civil Servants in policy analysis roles who through the use of data and analytical work support evidence-informed policy making in the Irish Civil Service.

The IGEES budget is managed by the IGEES Corporate Support Unit (CSU) in the Department of Public Expenditure NDP Delivery and Reform (DPENDR).

The IGEES budget, as set out in the DPENDR section of the annually published Revised Estimates, relates to annual allocations to fund the corporate operations of the IGEES network. These activities include recruitment, training (L&D), research funding and other corporate support activities for the network of approximately 200 IGEES analysts across the Civil Service. Decisions in respect of the IGEES budget form part of the Estimates process for DPENDR.

The IGEES CSU budget for 2023 is €253,000.

It is relevant to note that this does not include staff remuneration, as this is accounted for under general staffing costs in respective Departments.

Percent of 2023 IGEES CSU Budget

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Thank you for your question Deputy. As you know the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) within my Department plays a leadership role in digital service delivery and innovation initiatives. OGCIO also has oversight of digital and ICT-related initiatives proposed by Departments and agencies, and supports Ireland’s representation at EU and OECD level. The OGCIO's Vote supports the provision and development of pan-public service ICT infrastructure, shared service delivery models and cross government applications.

The Voted Expenditure for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer in 2023 is €40.286 million. This includes a provision of €4.5 million for the National Low Latency Platform programme that is funded under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) fund. There will be no allocation under this fund in 2024. Therefore the budget for 2024 is assumed to be the existing budget minus the RRF allocation.

The table below represents the total budget available were it to be increased in either 2023 or 2024 by 5, 10 and 20 percent respectively.